21 (basketball)

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Known as Manhattan, Boston, Rough House, American or Hunch, 21 is a popular variation of street basketball. It is played most often with 3-9 players on a half court and is a "one against all" game with much looser rules than streetball. Rules are fluid, with no foul calls, and are often different regionally or court specific. It is popular because it allows an odd number of people to play which is not possible in regular street basketball and it is very challenging because it is one player against all.

[edit] Scoring

Scoring is recorded differently than regular basketball. In 21, baskets count as two points (rather than one in normal streetball) after which the player must shoot free throws for 1 point apiece.(Also at the starting of the game the first shot that is made that person gets 3 points) If a free throw is missed the rebound is in play, much like a "1 and 1" situation in regular basketball. If a player makes his free throw he shoots until he misses. In some variations (generally called Tip Out), if he misses, the other people can tip it in. The person who tips it in receives 2 points and heads to the free throw line. In some variations, if the ball is successfully tipped in, the original shooter has their score reset to zero, hence the attraction of tipping it in instead of simply grabbing the rebound.

The game is won by the first person to score 21 points exactly. If there is no "win by two" rule (see below) on that court or in that game then the first party to score 21 exactly without going over is the winner. If the first party reaches 22, or misses a free throw after reaching a score of 20, then this is called a bust or marky and still enforced, and the player now has 13 (in some cases 0) points. For example, if a player gets a traveling violation the person guarding him gets the ball. Thus if a player makes an attempt and the ball goes out of bounds the first player to get the ball takes it into play. If a player dribbles out of bounds there is no penalty. The player simply brings the ball back in bounds. Often the ball is "checked" after an out of bounds by giving the ball to a defender who then gives it back to the ball handler. This gives the defense a chance to ready themselves. Carries and travels are not often called as long as the ball carrier is making a good faith attempt to maintain a semblance of basketball dribbling rules and not gaining advantage through circumventing the rules. Notice that when you get to 21 the player must shoot from at least 20 feet away from the hoop. This often allows a player who has lost their dribble in an awkward place and become surrounded to continue dribbling to get out of the situation and attempt a shot. This does not allow a player to trick opposing players by losing his dribble and suddenly regaining it or other such trickery. Rather, the rules are fluid to allow for situations which are not covered by normal basketball rules.( but remember while tipping the basketball you are allowed to tip more than once and still gain the opponents points)

Personal fouls are often not called unless they are particularly brutal or obvious (e.g.,"No blood, no foul"). The player with the ball often never calls the foul as a point of pride. Therefore, all fouls are conceded by the defense. On many courts it is expected that after a rebound the player must take it back out (going to the free throw line or 3 point line) before shooting. Sometimes the defensive team has to touch the ball before it can be played again) but it is just as often the case that rebounds can be immediately put back.

[edit] Variants

[1]21 Rebound